Gas-meter



R. A. CULLETON AND D. J. LEAHY.

GAS METER.

APPLlCATION FILED Auc.11.1916.

1,35 1,842, Patented Sept. 7, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

$3913 attozu R. A. CULLETON AND D. J. LEAHY.

GAS METER.

APPLICATION FILED AUGJIV 191s.

1,35 1,842. Patnted Sept. 7,1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

(Jnuemfoz M .AJW, $3 615 o'wuzg R. A. ()ULLETON AND LLEAHY- GAS METER.

APPLICATION FILED AUG;11,1916.

l 85 1 ,842. Patented Sept. 7, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

MW, (Jm vcnfoz bolts 11.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

vROBERT A. CULLETON AND DANIEL 'J. LEAHYQOF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

easel/rerun.

Specification or" Letterslatent.

Application filed August 11, 1916. Serial No. 114,343.

To (ZZZ uihom t may concern 1 Be it known that we, ROBERT A. CuLLn- 'roN, a citizen of the United States, andresiding in the borough of Brooklyn, county oi ngs, city and State of New York, and

Dnrirnn J. LnAI-rY, residing in the borough I I i 7" ct Brooklyn, in the county of lungs and oth ew York, have inventedicertain new and useful Improvements in Gas- Meters, of which the following is a specification, referen'cebeing had ther in to the accompanying drawing. 7 i

Our invention relates to improvements in gas meters and contemplates a construction which facilitates the removalot the entire assembled interior parts conveniently and simultaneously, wherebythe same are made accessible for inspection and repairs.

. T invention further contemplates certain 1mprovements in the construction and arrange ment of the gas measuring pockets or chambers, and the valve mechanisms, as well' as means for making gas-tight certain working parts of the same. I c v Tn Figure l we have illustrated an application of our invention as applied to an ordinary house gas meter in vertical cross section, partly broken away. Fig; 2'is a plan view with the upper part removed; Fig. 3 is an eniarged detail view of certain valve mechanism; 4; is an enlarged plan view of the head of one of the gas pockets; Fig.

5 is a cross section on. the'line 55 ofFig. a; Fig. 6 is an enlarged plan view of the front capor disk of one of the heads, and

Fig. 7 illustrates a method for cutting the: 1 same, toget ier with another portion of'the head from the same piece of leather or other material from which these heads may be constructed. y V

8 indicates the shell, body or outside lower casing of the meter which preferably proan inlet 9 through which the gas is supplied to'the meter for the premises, and 10 indicates the top or cover of the me which may be suitably secured to the shell8 by any suitable means such as the 12 indicates a suitablering or frame provided with the legs 13 carrying Ll n16 inetallicipans or chambers 14 the suring pockets of the meter,and 15 indisthe spiler or support for the shaft 1.6,

he ring or i -fame 12, the, same being mounted inthe spider :15, and is adapted to;

ptedto rest in the bottom of the casing S'as'shown. The crankshaft 161s rotatably being also secured by said spider pass through the cylinder or central tube or adapted to rotate in the path of the projection 21 upon the spindle 22 of the usual form or registering device 23 secured within the housing 2t'which may be provided With a transparent front. The bowls or metallic pans l t or" measuring pockets may be provided with peripheral sections such as shown in F 1gs. 4, and 5, and upon the face of which may be secured a disk which. may be of flexible material such as leather or chamois shown in plan view in Fig. 6. l

in cutting the collapsible peripheral sec tion shown in Figs. 4 and 5 and the disk shown in Fig. 6, in order that the peripheral section may be seamless it has been found desirable to cut them as shown in reduced plan view in Fig. 7, that is to say, a sufliciently large disk of leather or other suitable material has a disk cut out of the center thereof sufficient to overlap the rim 25 which is sli 'htly smaller in diameter than the rim after the disk such as 27 shown in Fig. 6, upon a reduced scale in Fig. 7, has been out from the piece as shown in Fig. 7, the outer rim 28 which remains may then be secured upon the rings 25 and 26 which are of the same relative diameters as the inner and outer edges of the rim of leather 28, so that after the edges have been secured over the rings they may be securely bound thereto by twine or other suitable means which may then be'shellacked to make the same gas-tight, thus. providing a flexible telescopic section between'the pans or me tallic pockets 14 and the disk head 27. This disk head 27 then be secured over the smaller rim such as 25 also by twine or other suitable means which may then be shellacked as beforestated.

For the purpose of securing the leather in position upon the rim evenly before binding the same by twine as aforesaid it has been found convenient to pass a string such as around the border of the same so that when in position the string may be drawn taut after which the leather may be shifted and adjusted before being finally bound and snellacl-ted. Thus we have a as Ckt with a flexible I see Patented Sept. *7, 1920.

3 the gas. table 18 by any suitable clamping finding the only outlet for escape through the particular valve or valvesin the valve table which happen to be open.

' This causes the slide 36 above the pocket 39 ably secured a suitable metallic disk such as 30 to serve as a support for the levers such I as 31 pivotally connected to the crank shaft 16 in the usual manner, so'that as each gas chamber or measuringpocket is successively inflated and deflated the crank 32 of the shaft is caused to rotate said shaft.

1 8 indicates a valve table or chamber pro vided with a'central circular passage or core 17 through which the shaft'16 passes, a nd provided with a series of internal passages shown to better advantage in Fig. 'Each of the gas measuring pockets is provided withfla passage such as 33 terminating in a door such as 34L which may be clamped to means such as 35. ,Upon the top of the valve table18 are provided suitable slide valve memberssuch as 36Ieach of which is pivotally connected by .rods such as 37 to the crank38of the shaft 16 as shown The operation of the meter is as follows: The gas from the street enters the 'meter through the inlet 9, passing upwardly all around the interior mechanism of the meter,

to move leftwardly looking at Fig. 3, covering the. inlet39, by the flange 10 as the adjacent valve uncovers the inlet 39', thus allowing the gas to enter the adjacent pocket through the passage 33. The valve36 now moving farther leftwardly' beyond the passage 39 allows the gas to escape into the interior til of the valve table 18 and while this is taking place the third valve of the combination is shifting to admit the gas to the particular pocket which it controls. This idea of'producing what n factis a meter to be operated from the pressure of the gas is of course not new, but the particular arrangement of valve and the gas table by which this result is accomplished as illus-.

trated hereinisbelieved to be new. 7

From the foregoing it will be readily un-i derstood that asone pocketis receiving the gas. the achacent one is lnclosing the gas therein, while the third pocket is establish ing communication between its pocket and the gas table, which it will be observed communicates with the premises from the out I, let 42 which may beconnected with the pipe i: 48 by the nut 44 or by any other suitable means. It will also be observed that asthe crank shaft is rotated due to the intake and exhaust of gas by the various pockets 'suc- 'cessively, the spindle 22 of the register 23 will be rotated, and the relative adjustment between the crank shaft 16 and said spindle may be fixed by shifting the pin 20 and se- ',curing the same in position uponthe projection 19 by any suitable means such as the nut44.'- I V For purposes of repair it will be readily observed that the outer shell or casing which may be of thin stamped steel or othermaterial, may be dropped free simply by removing the bolts such as 11, and if it is desired to make further inspection or repair the vhouse connection &3 may be disconnected by uncouplingthe connection at 4 1, and the entire interior contents of the meter may then be. conveniently removed and is thereupon. I immediately accessible. The pockets may be conveniently disconnected from the gas tableby'rele'asing the catches 35' so that it is not necessary to burn off any solder or engage in ez itensive' mechanical eifortforfietting at any particular part of the mechanism as is usual with meters now in general use. It will readily be observed that all parts are conveniently accessible and it will of course be understood that the intermediate or peripheral collapsible and telescopic sections such as 28 may be eliminatedif desired. I

' In fact, various modifications may be made in the construction and arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit of the invention as claimed.

We claim V 1. In a device of the character described, the combination, with a casing, of a supporting member mounted within the casing, a plurality of measuring units supported from said member, a shaft, means operatively connecting said measuring units with said shaft, said shaft being journaled in the supporting member, valves for regulating the iii-dew and out-flow of gas into and from said measuring units, operative connecting means including a crank and connecting rodsbetween said valves and saidshaft, the said valves being supported upon the supporting member, a cover for said casing, registering mechanism carried by said cover and'adap't ed to be actuated by said shaft, disconnectible operating means between said shaft and said registering mechanism, the entire. mechanism within the casing being removable asa unit from the interior therea supporting member mounted near the upperjend of said casing, plurality of gas measuring devices depending from said supl porting member, va hollowboss formed integral with the said supporting member, a 30st extendlng through said boss and formed integral wlth the supporting memgas her and boss, a shaft extending through the said post, operative connections between the said shaft and the gas measuring devices, means for journaling the shaft at the lower end thereof, there being ports in the walls of the gas measuring devices and the hollow boss, valves for controlling the said ports and operative connections between said shaft and said valves.

3. In a device of the character'described, the combination, with a casing, of a plurality of gas measuring devices within said casing, a shaft adapted to be operated by the said gas measuring devices, means operatively connecting said measuring devices with said shaft, a chambered member, there being ports in the chambered member and the gas measuring devices, valves for controlling said ports, operative connections be tween the said valves and the said shaft, an outlet pipe communicating with the chambered member, therupper end of said pipe being formed integral with said cover, the inner end of said pipe being formed to cooperate with the end of the pipe before mentioned to form a tight joint, the said pipes being separable as the cover is removed.

4. In a device of the character described, the combination, with a casing, of an inlet connection cast integral with one end of said casing, a measuringdevice within the casing, a member having a chamber with which said measuring device communicates, an outlet pipe from said chamber formed with a seat at its outer end,-a cover for said casing, an outlet pipe integrally formed with the cover, the inner end of said last pipe cooperating with the seat upon the first mentioned pipe to form a tight joint, the said pipes being separable as the cover is removed from the casing.

55. In a device of the character described, the combination, with a casing, a plurality of measuring devices within said casing, and a shaft journaling member supported at one end of the casing, of a plate mounted in the casing near the other end thereof, a chambered member formed integral with said plate, a post extending through the said chambered member and I formed integral therewith and with the plate, a shaft journaled at one end in said post and at its opposite end in the journaling member there being ports formed in communication with the chambered member and with the gas measuring devices, valves controlling said ports, operative connections between said valves and the shaft, and operative connections between the said shaft and the gas measuring devices.

' 6. In a device of the character described, the combination, with a casing, of a supporting member mounted within said casing near one end thereof, a plurality of gas measuring devices connected to said supporting member, a plate carried by said supporting member and spaced therefrom to form a chamber, a vertical shaft extending centrally through said supporting member, operative connections between the said shaft and the gas measuring devices, the walls of the gas measuring devices and the said chamber being provided with ports, and means operated by said shaft for controlling said ports.

7. In a device of the character described, the combination with a casing, of an inlet pipe connected thereto, a measuring device within the casing, a member having a chamber with which said measuring device communicates, a rigid outlet pipe, carried by said member and communicating with said chamber and formed with a seat at its upper end, a cover for said casing, an outlet pipe passing through said cover and rigidly connected therewith, the inner end of said pipe adapted to cooperate with. the seat upon the first mentioned pipe to form a tight joint, the said pipes being separable as the cover is removed from the casing.

8. A meter comprising the combination, with casing, f an inlet pipe connected thereto, a measuring device within the casing, a member having a chamber with which said measuring device communicates, a rigid outlet pipe carried by said member and communicating with said chamber, a cover for said casing, an outlet pipe rigidly attached to the cover and extending there through to the outside of said meter and having a detachable connection with said first mentioned outlet pipe, said measuring device and chambered member being so arranged as to be freely removable from said casing after the removal of said cover therefrom. V

9. In a device of the character described, the combination of a casing, a plate mounted in said casing near one end thereof, a second plate carried by said first plate and spaced therefrom to form a chamber, a shaft extending centrally through said plates and chamber, a plurality of gas-measuring de vices attached to one side of one of suit plates, operative connections between said measuring devices and said shaft, said chambers and said gas measuring devices having ports, valves controlling said ports, operative connections between said valves and shaft, and means for journaling said shaft.

In testimony whereof we hereunto afiix our signatures in the presence of two witnesses.

ROBERT A. CULLETON. DANIEL J. LEAHY. Fitness es EVELYN II. LnIsTNnn, THOMAS A. HILL. 

